It is the concepts introduced by John Rawl in A Theory of Justice. According to the John Rawls Theory of Justice, "The Veil of Ignorance" is the method determining the morality of a certain issue (e.g. slavery) based upon the following principle: imagine that societal roles were completely re-fashioned and redistributed, and that from behind the veil of ignorance, one does not know what role they will be reassigned. Only then can one truly consider the morality of an issue. For example: Self-interested rational persons behind the Veil of Ignorance are given the task of choosing the principles that shall govern actual world. Rawls believes that he has set up an inherently fair procedure here. Because of the fairness of the procedure Rawls has described, he says, the principles that would be chosen by means of this procedure would be fair principles. A self-interested rational person behind the Veil of Ignorance would not want to belong to a race or gender or sexual orientation that turns out to be discriminated-against. Such a person would not wish to be a handicapped person in a society where handicapped are treated without respect. So the principles would be adopted that oppose discrimination.
We are to imagine ourselves in what Rawls calls the Original Position. We are all self-interested rational persons and we stand behind "the Veil of Ignorance." To say that we are self-interested rational persons is to say that we are motivated to select, in an informed and enlightened way, whatever seems advantageous for ourselves. Similarly, to say that we are behind a Veil of Ignorance is to say we do not know the following sorts of things: our sex, race, physical handicaps, generation, social class of our parents, etc. But self-interested rational persons are not ignorant of them.
Therefore, the grade a student receives should reflect the quantity and quality of her work but not in accordance with the student's ability to pay. Similarly, selection and printing of the news coverage should be free from the self-interested person. In above given examples, judging students, news coverage, etc. are very decision which should be done fairly without any personal interest.
References:
Ernie the Attorney. (2002). The Veil of Ignorance. Retrieved June 7, 2011 http://radio-weblogs.com/0104634/stories/2002/07/18/theVeilOfIgnorance.html
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. (2008). Original Position. Retrieved June 12, 2011 http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/original-position/
Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. (17 June 2011). Veil of Ignorance. Retrived June 20, 2011 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Veil_of_ignorance
